No, neither do I, at least I don’t think I do. I used to be sure I didn’t but, to be honest, I do have certain doubts. When we first moved to Godmanchester over six years ago, the family (including husband) were convinced any old house must have a ghost. Logical I suppose
when you think how many people must have lived there over the years. I laughed and told them they had all read too many books and seen too many films.

When husband spent several nights sitting downstairs half asleep and announced the next morning that he had not spent the night alone, I was forced to wonder if there was another woman in his life. However, in view of the fact that he had just had a major operation, I felt this was somewhat unlikely. I suppose the fact that she was shadowy and elderly was a bit of a give-away, unless, of course, he was dreaming of me! Anaesthetic has sent you a bit ga-ga I insisted and thought nothing of it.

Numerous bangs in the night were put down to an old house creaking rather loudly and doors shutting to the fact that it was windy, admittedly it seemed odd that there was no wind anywhere else. When I failed to wake up because the electric alarm clock didn’t go off, I naturally assumed there had been a power cut, odd none of the other electric clocks stopped.

I began to think maybe there was a ghost when I woke up in the night with the windows rattling and the bed shaking until I saw the news next morning and found there had been an earthquake! See, I was right no such thing as ghosts. Or is there? Sitting in the lounge can be an interesting experience. Being an old house, things either fit very well or not at all. In the case of the lounge door, it is the former, to the extent that when closed we frequently have to escape via the dining room or yell for help from husband who is the only one able to open it.

His DIY skills haven’t as yet solved the problem. However, we can both be sitting there, with the door closed and it will suddenly open of its
own accord.

We had some friends to dinner a few weeks ago and we were all sitting round the table chatting about general things when suddenly the clock chimed 1 o’clock. We all heard it. “Goodness,” said one of our guests, “is that the time? We must be going.” There is only one problem, we don’t have a chiming clock. When we explained this, more drinks were needed to calm the nerves of our visitors and they stayed another hour to see if the clock struck again – it didn’t. Maybe our ghost thought it was time for bed!

I was awoken only a few weeks ago by very loud snoring. Husband waking me up again: a quick dig in the ribs usually works. So I proceeded to do so, where is he. Oh yes, he’s working away. So who was snoring? Was it me? Don’t think so because I was wide awake when I realised and still the snoring
continued.

If there is a ghost, there is still and if in my mind, although admittedly some things are hard to explain, then she is welcome to stay. After all it is quite useful to encourage dinner guests to leave – but I do wish she would do the washing up

Nina Collier

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